Hello Leaders/students!
As you know this week is homegroup! And for this homegroup we will be continuing our
year long theme of sacrifice. Along with this theme we are also continuing to go through the
whole story of the Bible week by week, story by story. This week we will be diving into the story
of the flood (see what I did there?). Through reading this story we want you and the students to
be able to process a couple of things. First off, the significance of the flood. The flood is a major
part of the old testament and the Bible as a whole. It raises a lot of questions of what was the
purpose, how can God do something like this, what did God choose Noah? There are lots and
lots of questions. But the most important part about the flood is how it points to the coming of
Jesus. That the whole Bible is one continuous story with Jesus at the climax. And everything
that comes before that climax points to it! That in this story both the waters themself and the
rainbow afterwards are significant indications of Jesus.
Please read through these passages about the flood and discuss the questions afterwards.
Genesis 6:11-14
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how
corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So
make yourself an ark of cypress wood
Genesis 7:6-10
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah
and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of
the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move
along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had
commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
Genesis 8:6-12
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven,
and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he
sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But
the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of
the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove
and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent
out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its
beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from
the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did
not return to him.
Genesis 9:12-16
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and
every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my
rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I
will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.
Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow
appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God
and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
1 Peter 3:20-21
20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of
Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved
through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the
removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. [e] It
saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1. Why did the flood need to happen?
2. How is God still a just, and loving God, before/during/after the flood?
3. What does the rainbow represent? Watch this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=FLhUbh7qMaE) to help answer questions.
4. How does the flood itself point to baptism? How does that point to Jesus?
5. After reading and discussing, what does this mean for us in our everyday life? How does
this apply to us?
